The United States in the twenties was an odd mixture of status quo and dynamic change, of conservatism and modernism. On the political and social policy scene, it was an uneventful decade, especially compared to the progressive years that preceded it. But from a social and cultural standpoint, it was a period of vitality, excitement, and upheaval. American society was going through some major changes, and though in some ways it was becoming more homogeneous than ever before, in other ways it was deeply divided.
Isolation and Republican Leadership
In the years following World War I, the United States demonstrated that, despite its newfound role as a leading world power, it was less than willing to take on the responsibilities that go with that status. The war had given Americans more than their fill of international affairs, and they eagerly returned to isolationism in the twenties. Though the decade began with President Woodrow Wilson pushing for U.S. membership in the League of Nations, which he created, Harding announced in his inaugural address, "We seek no part in directing the destinies of the world." The United States participated in League activities during the twenties, but refused to join it. It also declined membership in the World Court. Though tensions were building in Europe and a totalitarian threat loomed, the United States had no desire to get involved during the twenties. Washington’s main concern regarding Europe seemed to be recouping its wartime loans. As President Coolidge said, "They hired the money, didn’t they?"
On the domestic front, the Republican administrations of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover all practiced a similar hands-off approach with regards to business. They operated on the philosophy that by giving big business the room to flourish, the rest of the country would prosper as well. The plan seemed to work, for many areas of business experienced tremendous growth during the decade, and most of the public agreed that business was the hope of the future. The pervading attitude was summed up in a 1921 article by Edward Earl Purinton entitled, "Big Ideas from Big Business":
What is the finest game? Business. The soundest science? Business. The truest art? Business. The fullest education? Business. The fairest opportunity? Business. The cleanest philanthropy? Business. The sanest religion? Business.
In other words, business held all the answers. There was no need for new social legislation.
Leaders of big business, for obvious reasons, saw a great deal of wisdom in the Republican policies, but others, including farmers, small business owners, and workers such as those in the Gastonia mill town, were not at all convinced that there was no further need for reforms. Still, they would have to wait until the next decade and the New Deal before their pleas for action would be heeded.
The First Modern Decade
Though bold initiatives were hard to come by in government policy, the social scene was an entirely different story. To the young moderns of the twenties, boldness was the ideal. But it wasn’t just the flapers, their raccoon-coated boyfriends, and the Lost Generation who instigated a decade of change. Much larger forces were involved. Technology, science, urbanization, mass production, and mass consumption — all were changing the way Americans worked, played, and thought. As historian George E. Mowry explains, the twenties "prepared the way for the future."
While on the one hand, Americans sought to reap all the benefits that modernization had to offer, they were also afraid of what was being sacrificed for progress. As Geoffrey Perrett observes, "All across American life there was a deep break in continuity, with the sense of release that liberation brings, along with all the anxiety occasioned by the unknown."
Some people embraced the future, while others tried to hang on to the past. While the new generation rebelled against Victorian and Puritan ideas, modernism was a bad word in some circles. The revolution in morals and manners, especially with regard to the "new American woman" was considered a horrifying development by many. They pointed to the flapper as a sign of the coming downfall of civilization. And as sex and petting parties became more common topics of conversation, it was not only Victorian parents who began to worry about their daughters.
The booming cities were seen as hothouses of modernism, and as such they were disdained by rural, old-stock folks who held dearly to traditional values. As cities grew, so did the urban influence on American society, which was a threatening development to conservative people in small towns and the still-developing areas of the frontier. They associated big city life with free love, high divorce rates, "un-American" immigrants, and cynical, young nonbelievers. The Ku Klux Klan exploited this distrust and antipathy toward urbanization, and many citizens who wouldn’t think of putting on a white sheet agreed with the Klan’s leaders that what passed for urban sophistication was really moral decay.
Intellectuals were also considered a destructive force by many, for by promoting the theories of Freud and evolutionism, they were weakening the influence of religion. The rise of religious fundamentalism in the twenties was in part a reaction against the growing influence of science and psychology. While more people than ever before attended public schools and universities in the twenties, not everyone was pleased by this development. At a religious meeting in Dayton, Tennessee, location of the Scopes trial, preacher Joe Leffew declared, "Some folks work their hands off ’n up ’n to the elbows to give their younguns education, and all they do is send their younguns to hell."
